Jakob's Bowl

A Rare Wein From South Of Wien

I stumbled onto this gem of a small white wine from Austria last week, and it just may push Lumassina off the top of my list of favorite small whites for the year. Zierfandler is only planted in a small region just to the south of Vienna, so it's highly limited even to the Austrians. It started to get some press last year over in this country, and I couldn't be happier about it. I will have more details and tasting notes about these two versions from Weingut Stadlmann to follow...

The Blush Is Off Summer

It seems as if blush wines have flooded the market here over the last four or five years with Rosé, Rosato, Rosado, and more stacked high in wine shops and supermarkets from May until September. This is a far cry from fifteen years ago when the casual wine drinkers here were still repelled by blush wines, a negative reaction to all that white Zinfandel from the late1980s. As a result, a relatively small number Rosés from the South of France predominated, and those who knew the secret of French pink wine were able to buy all they wanted for $12 to $15 with only one or two approaching $20 in some parts of the country. I came to drink a lot of Mas de Gourgonnier Rosé from Les Baux De Provence and Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé, the latter of which could still be purchased for under $19 when I moved to Seattle in the late nineties.

When the Dollar collapsed against the Euro, the prices for my favorites began to rise precipitously. At about the same time a lot more people in this country realized that well made pink wine was ‘real’ wine after all, and higher demand for these limited production wines created a certain amount of scarcity. When the Domaine Tempier began to approach $30, I began to search for substitutes - it would eventually approach $40. Fortunately the increased demand meant more imports, and I think it encouraged more wine makers to produce simple blush wines, many who had no real clue. At first I gravitated to Rosé from the Loire, mainly 100% Cabernet Franc, and it was either hit or miss, at every price point. I eventually tried blush wines from Spain, Italy, and here in the USA, more often than not single varietals or two grape blends with more misses than hits.

Sicilian Simplicity: Insolia II

It is getting easier to find Sicilian Insolia these days…in the discount bin, that is. Unfortunately, I’ve not had much luck with imported white wines that regularly retail for $9 or less, so I’ve passed by at least a half dozen different versions of Insolia in the last year. In Portland a few weeks back I found a bottle of 2008 'biologici' "Strade" from Antica Tenuta Del Nafro that looked more interesting, and at $19, it didn’t break the budget. If you are interested in the details of the Insolia grape, feel free to read my first post, Sicilian Simplicity: Insolia. Whereas the Martorana Estate Insolia from was produced about two miles from the sea near Agrigento, on the center Sicily’s southern coast, the Tenuta Nafro is produced near Caltagirone about sixty miles due east and about 20 miles from the sea, and that gave me the chance to taste two different micro-climates.

The Tenuta Nanfro Insolia was more restrained when I first opened it, with just a hint of honey, vanilla, and fruit on the nose. It was very tight on the palate, almost austere with greenish stone fruit, minerals and some acidity on the finish. After those first sips, I thought I might have thrown my money away, but with a bit of breathing the wine began to open with more fruit on the nose. The harsh mineral core had softened into bitter almond and grapefruit peel. The acidity was also much more in evidence as the wine moved to a very dry finish. On day two, the wine was still restrained compared the Martorana, but I began to like it more. I think that this makes it easier drinking and more versatile…especially with raw and grilled seafood.

PS: I have created a summary chart of the small whites I’ve tasted and a photo album of the labels for those who are interested.

I'll Pass On This Passerina From Abruzzo

Despite all of the ‘encouraging’ news from the talking heads, I still don’t see the economy making much headway, as demonstrated by the fact that the inventory in most wine shops is still on the ‘lean’ side these days, both in amount and variety. While this may only be one of the ‘small’ signs, it’s definitely putting a crimp in my year-long tasting of ‘small’ Italian wine grape varietals as importers and retailers stick to proven, high turnover varietals. Needless to say after over a month-long drought, I was surprised to see this bottle of Passerina produced in the Colli Aprutini IGT of Abruzzo in a local shop specializing in imported food and wine from Italy. Even though I am a big fan of the Pecorino produced in Abruzzo, I have always been suspicious of the other whites produced in the region, but at only $18, I decided to take a chance.

...And Some New Old

While I was in Portland a few weeks back I stumbled on yet another version of Nosiola at the City Market from the Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT, specifically from Azienda Agricola Pojer e Sandri from Faedo in the Trento region. Since I was familiar with the quality of their wines, I didn’t balk at the $24 price tag - $10 more than the Pravis Le Frate. I’ve always believed that a wine’s label have little to no importance in choosing a wine. However, when I first saw the Poje e Sandri label, a wood cut print by Dürer, eight or nine years ago, I was immediately drawn to it. I’ve been entranced by the works of German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) for over 30 years - whenever I’m within a day’s train ride from Munich, I feel the tug of his hypnotic Self Portrait (1500) in the city’s Alte Pinakothek. Fortunately, the tasteful label was on a bottle of tasty wine, which is often not the case. At the time the only two wines available in the wine shop were Traminer and Muller Thurgau, and I recall that I went with the Traminer, and although a bit pricy, it was very enjoyable. I went back a week or so later with the though of trying the Muller Thurgau, but it was sold out. I don’t recall seeing their wines very often in Seattle after that. The sales woman in Portland suggested that the Pojer e Sandri Nosiola was new to their distributor, and since there are no tasting notes for it on Cellar Tracker, I suspect that it may be new for the USA.

While the Pravis vineyards are 17 km to the southwest of Trento, and just 27 km away from the northern tip of Lake Garda, the Pojer e Sandri vineyards are about 22 km almost due north of Trento in the Adige Valley. This makes for differences in altitude, microclimate, and soil, and at least from my perspective, significant differences in the wines, well at least the Nosiola.

Some Ligurian Sunshine: Bianchetta Genovese

While Genoa was a powerful maritime city-state during much of the Middle Ages, this territory of the Ligures had been colonized, dominated or protected by many a kingdom and empire - Greek, Etruscan, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Ostrogoth, Byzantine, Lombard, Frank, Austrian, French, Piedmontese, and Savoyard. It was probably the Greeks that planted the ‘small’ white grape that has come down to us as Bianchetta Genovese. When I did my initial research for small Italian whites, I believed that Pigato would be my only specimen in Liguria, but then I came across Lumassina and now Bianchetta - the rugged, and for most of its history, impassable terrain of the region more than likely promoted diversity. Most of the sources material that I had found actually warned that with the exception of the 'big' white Vermentino, the white wines of the region were mainly consumed in the region. I’ve dug deeper just to make sure, and these three seem to be the only ‘small’ whites that are made into commercially available single varietal wines. Bosco, Rollo, and Albarola are other indigenous small whites, but their use seems to be restricted to Vino Bianco blends.

Some sources suggest that Bianchetta Genovese was on the road to distinction, but it seems to be grown in a number of areas in Liguria although mainly for blending. Only two DOC areas recognize a single varietal wine made from the grape, Val Polcevera DOC, the area around Genoa, and Golfo del Tigullio DOC, to the east of Genoa, fromthe area around Portofino to Chiavari, where the 2007 Bisson Bianchetta Genovese  - Ü Pastine was produced. Born in 1978, Domaine Enoteca Bisson is a the creation and love of Pierluigi Lugano who began his career in wine as trader in bulk wine, and now produces some of the best single varietal Bianchetta Genovese, and one of the few that makes it to our shores.